A Manifesto in Defense of Kitchens and Spice Cabinets

There is a young lady I know. Well, I know of her. Primarily from her blog, which I enjoy rather a lot. She writes entertaining pieces about her adventures and experiences. Seems to have a lovely attitude. Takes pleasure in everything. Like riding a bicycle. Caring for her dog. Cleaning her home and making it more pretty. Helping people in need. Things that are, or should be, fundamental sources of satisfaction to all of us.

Recently, this young lady wrote a nice bit about reorganizing her kitchen in general and her spice cabinet in particular. I found it an Epic notion that someone could spend six hours in that sort of endeavor and take so much joy and pride from it. An inspiration actually to a fellow like me, who would have to REALLY push my philosophical limits to squeeze enjoyment from a spice cabinet. Even an organized one. Which mine certainly is not. As you can see.

What I did not realize was how dangerous a topic kitchen reorganization can be. How socially oppressive. Due I suppose to my lack of insight, I missed the deeper and more insidious message in making little jars and pots and pans more ergonomic and efficiently useful. Pity.

More pitiful is that someone took it upon themselves to squander a few minutes of their precious life to post a vitriolic comment to this little story. An objection apparently to ownership of kitchens in general and spices in particular. In light of current social, financial and world calamities. A very personal attack. Unprovoked. Of course anonymous. The lady is a better person than me. I would have deleted the comment.

Which, whether out of rank jealousy or mere misplaced passion, of course completely missed the point. Lots of us actually have a separate room in which to cook our food. Many of us even have spices used in the task, for better or worse. And you know what? No matter how nice the cooking room or how precious the spices we may have, we all have various additional blessings of one sort or another, many of which go unused. I know lots of people that have had their kitchens redone. But I do not know many people with this particular young lady's gift. A gift I admire very much. The ability to make a joyful event out of a mundane chore. Combined with the ability and desire to write a story about it that can transfer some of that joy to another person. And inspire them to create happy pride in a similar accomplishment. As well as a usable bit of storage. There is nothing more aggravating than pulling out the sixth or seventh bottle of sage when marjoram is what is needed. This, I know.

To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie: "if one person does it you have a statement but if two people do it you've got yourself a grass roots movement". Rather than misuse our short supply of life-hours in silly and mean spirited commentary I say we all take action. Rich or poor, organized or disorganized, tall or short, old or young, fully tressed or [gulp] balding. Read Melissa Morris' nice story of reorganizing her kitchen. Ignore the foolish comment to which I refer. Be inspired. Then go DO something. Ride a bike. Care for an animal. Help those in need. For goodness sake, whatever it is take JOY from it. Like she does. Me, I'm heading for the spice cabinet.